Preface

The computer industry has made incredible progress with information sharing since the introduction of local area networks (LANs) in the 1980s. These advancements have produced services and tools that increase user productivity while decreasing their workload. Since the very infancy of the LAN industry, sharing of resources has been at the very root of the value of the use of LANs. One of the most vital resources in the network is the server the large, expensive computer system that can supply facilities to many thousands of users, giving them access to capabilities that they do not have available on their desktops.

Since the introduction of ZENworks for Desktops, Novell has recognized the value in managing resources through the directory. This significantly reduces the cost of managing any resource, enabling the administrators of the network to handle more services and focus on the needs of the business. Novell has now moved this concept into managing the server. Within the directory, the administrator can set system parameters and policies to govern the behavior of their servers in the tree. These policies can affect as little as one server, or as many servers as are in the tree. With a single instruction to the directory literally all servers in the network can be modified.

In addition to managing the behavior of the servers, Novell with ZENworks for Servers 3 has given us a scalable distribution service that can efficiently transfer bundles of files to any or all servers in the network. Administrators can construct packages and bundles of files and have them efficiently distributed across the hall or across the world. The servers unpack and store these bundles on their local file systems. We no longer have to spend our time forever copying applications and files all across our servers in the network.

This book is your guide to leveraging ZENworks for Servers 3 to distribute files across the network and to maintain and manage your NetWare servers. This book provides steps to set up and use the advanced features of ZENworks for Servers 3 to cut your administrative efforts and costs, while making the network environment much more effective for your company.